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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, j 



CAMPAIGN 



HENANBeAH VAI2I2EY. 



1564. 



HILL. 




DamDaiQii in tfie snenanfloali Valleu, 18B4. 



A PAPER 

READ BEFORE THE 

EIGHTH VERMONT VOLUNTEERS 

AND 

FIRST VERMONT CAVALRY, 

^t ii}tix Annual '^t'-unian, 
IN MONTPELIER, VERMONT, NOVEMbS 2, 1886. 



BY 

COLONEL HERBERT E. HILL 



OF BOSTON. 



PUBLISHED BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



BOSTON: 

RAND AVERY COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

Cfje JFvanklin Press. 



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NOTE. 

This monument was dedicated with appropriate services by Governor 
Ormsbee, Congressman Grout, General Thomas, Captain Buffum, 
representatives of the City Government of Winchester, and other dis- 
tinguished officials. An original poem was read by Colonel George N. 
Carpenter of Boston. 




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GHE^gge^'ir E. NOfLL, 

Heditated Sept. IB, JIS83. 



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CAMPAIGN IN THE SHENANDOAH 
y ALLEY. 1864. 



TfflS campaign was a notable one. No campaign during the four 
years of bloody war attracted more attention ; none saw fiercer fight- 
ing or more decisive results. It was a series of brilliant manoeuvres 
and masterly lightning-strokes. Walled in between two majestic 
mountains lay the beautiful Shenandoah Valley ; while along its entire 
length ran a splendid macadamized pike, over which the iron hoofs 
of war rode rough-shod. The spirit form of romance hovered in 
splendor in the clouds that shadowed the blue mountain-sides, the 
beauty of which was heightened by the terrible drama of war. 

IJere in this wonderful valley the renowned Stonewall Jackson had 
suddenly appeared with his legions, and, after striking a stinging blow, 
then as suddenly disappeared. 

Through this valley the veteran Lee had swept in resistless fury 
with his mighty host. Here, and later, the foaming black steed with 
tremendous speed bore his rider Sheridan down to his army twenty 
miles away. 

It was on the eve of a great presidential election. The giants of 
war. Grant and Lee, had sent their best troops to contend for this 
historic highway leading down to Washington. Hence the eyes 
of the world turned to the Shenandoah Valley and this campaign. 

The services of a regiment should not always be computed by its 
number of engagements. The Second Vermont Brigade at Gettys- 
burg were then comparatively raw troops ; but by striking at the 
right moment, they won imperishable renown in a single encounter 
with Pickett's braves. 

The Eighth Regiment, or detachments 01 it, was under fire on 



4 Campaign hi the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. 

sixty-two different occasions when men were killed or wounded, 
and was one of the regiments that were entitled to the name of 
veteran ; but not of these facts, so much as that which it was per- 
mitted to accomplish in one or two great battles, does this paper 
treat at this time. 

High noon, Sept. 19, 1864, found the demon of war playing wild 
havoc with men's blood and lives, as Sheridan and Early struggled 
for mastery on the plains of Winchester. Fighting had been going 
on with more or less severity since daylight, and now the wild shout 
of Union troops in the woods and beyond signalled that they had 
penetrated the enemy's lines ; and hope was fluttering gayly from 
our banners, only to be torn down as the shout died out, and in its 
place rose the piercing yell of the foe, who had flanked and driven 
back in dire confusion the left of the Nineteenth and the right of 
the Sixth Corps. With pride you remember that there the regiment 
stood like a rock as the defeated and wounded men pressed through 
to the rear ; how a fragment of the gallant but shattered Fourteenth 
New Hampshire, one of the first to reach the enemy, was hurled 
into our midst with their flags, and instantly adopted as a part of 
our own ; how, in the face of the storm, you advanced into the 
open field, repulsed the enemy in your front, and held him at bay 
for over two long hours. All this was well, but the crowning 
triumph of the regiment came at three o'clock. At that hour the 
Eighth Vermont and Twelfth Connecticut were far in advance of 
the rest of the corps, had heard the guns of Upton's gallant men 
some distance on our left ; but in the disposition of troops all were 
now withdrawn from our right and immediate left. We were abso- 
lutely alone, and mentioned by the historian of the Twenty-ninth 
Maine as a " skirmish hne " with the enemy massed in front. 

But now the scene changes ; and Crook's corps, with Thoburn's 
division nearest us in parallel hnes, sweeps up around our right as a 
turning column in magnificent array. For a moment we forget the 
horrors of the battle-field, and gaze in silent awe on this mighty 
chariot of war as it comes nearer and nearer. But the sharp and 



Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. 5 

almost simultaneous crashes of musketry from Gordon's corps in 
our front tear frightful gaps in Thoburn's flank ; and his men, without 
orders, instinctively turn toward the bitter storm of hail, for no 
troops can long endure such fire. Their beautiful lines are soon 
lost and gone, merged into a mass of rushing men. The crisis has 
come. If this charge fails, all is lost. But standing here was a man 
bom for a crisis, a noble soldier, free from envy or jealousy, whose 
experienced eye at once grasped the situation. Exclaiming, "We'll 
help them ! " he instantly hurled the Eighth Vermont and Twelfth 
Connecticut with tremendous force upon the enemy in front, shiver- 
ing their line to atoms, disabling and silencing an aggravating battery, 
and sending the foe fleeing in disorder toward Winchester. That 
man was Gen. Stephen Thomas. 

This deed of valor was a mighty factor in deciding this great 
battle, and was of inestimable value to Crook's corps, whose hnes, 
according to Thoburn's own report, were "broken and gone " by the 
awful flank fire and forced change of front. 

Thomas's bayonet charge was the iron prow to Crook's engine of 
war. It gave force to Crook's assault. It relieved him from the 
withering flank fire. It broke the enemy's main line of battle in 
front, resulting in the swift overthrow of Early's entire army. It was 
like running a rapier into the vitals of the enemy, and holding it there 
until the Eighth Corps came rushing in on our right, the Sixth on our 
left, and the Nineteenth in support. 

Just here, the key to the battle, and alone on the open plain, with 
our flag (and that of the Fourteenth New Hampshire we had 
adopted) flaunting defiance to the frowning batteries and their 
plunging shot, we were unceremoniously introduced, by the bloody 
hand of war, to as noble a body of troopers as ever fired a carbine, 
flashed a gleaming sabre, or buckled on a spur, — none other than 
that proud command, the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry. 

The scene at this moment was one of marvellous grandeur, as the 
finest cavalry corps on the face of the globe thundered down upon 
the retreating Confederates. 



6 Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. 

The best soldiers in the world could not stand this combined 
assault of bayonet and sabre ; and the historic city of Winchester, 
which had stood for years as a blazing citadel between the armies of 
the country, soon found its streets filled with wild commotion and 
woe. Thus it was reserved for the gallant Sheridan to win the first 
decisive victory for the Union arms in this far-famed valley of the 
Shenandoah. 

The Eighth Vermont's bayonet charge, and Crook's assault, were 
practically one, and were immediately followed by the cavalry 
charge. As further showing the wild scenes of disorder that followed 
this break, and to record a fact hitherto unknown to our people, I 
desire to pay tribute to a deed of lofty heroism performed by a brave 
woman of the South, the wife of the then battle-scarred veteran Gen. 
Gordon, now governor of Georgia. In a beautiful letter written on 
another matter, Mrs. Gen. Gordon adds, — 

" I have read with pleasure your patriotic and generous words in 
presenting the monument to commemorate the courage of your regi- 
ment on the 19th September, 1864. 

" I followed my husband through the war, and was in Winchester 
on that memorable day. I shall never forget the appalling spectacle 
which I that day witnessed, for the first iime, of Confederates re- 
treating in disorder, as I stood in the streets, and with uplifted hands 
and pleading words vainly tried to turn them back." 

The marvellous endurance and prowess of the Confederate sol- 
diers is solved when we remember they were Americans, and that 
their wives, mothers, and sisters suffered in common with them, and 
by their own acts of heroism inspired the men at the front. 

A monument marks the pathway of the regiment on this batde- 
field, and the generous people of Winchester — once our foes, but 
now our friends — carefully guard it as though their own. 



Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. y 



BATTLE OF CEDAR CREEK. 

The battle of Cedar Creek stands out like a lone sentinel, totally 
unlike any other battle of the war. In one brief day the veteran 
was plunged in the fathomless depths of crushing defeat, and then 
as suddenly lifted to the dizzy heights of glorious victory. Sheridan 
had gone to Washington. Wright was in command. Thomas was 
corps officer of the day. This was the status of affairs on the morn- 
ing of the battle, Oct. 19, 1864, to which we turn. 

The scene was memorable. The chieftain Gordon, after a daring 
night march, before daybreak lay crouching with three splendid divis- 
ions under Wright's left shoulder. Kershaw, with a fourth division, 
hovered on his left front ; while Wharton, with a fifth division, was 
planted with forty pieces of artillery on Hupp's Hill, above our 
heads. 

The crash of Gordon's rifles in our rear, and the roar of Early's 
cannon in our front, thundered the appalling fact that we were 
flanked, and Wright outgeneralled. But be it known to-day, if never 
before, that this utter lack of precaution was positively inexcusable ; 
for it was our own brigade-commander Thomas, corps officer of the 
picket, who personally warned the Union commander of the impend- 
ing danger, and that the enemy was reconnoitring our left, where 
the blow soon fell with such awful fury. From Col. Hotchkiss it was 
afterwards learned that this reconnoitring party included himself, 
Gen. Gordon, and other members of his staff, then selecting their 
routes for the morning attack. 

Assaulted from front and rear. Crook's corps was soon scattered to 
the winds, and the entire army was threatened with destruction in 
piecemeal. A swift sacrifice was necessary, and the lot fell upon 
our own regiment and brigade. 

Thomas had been all night in the saddle, with premonition of 
trouble at daylight ; and his hair-breadth escape from the enemy's 
cavalry that pounced upon him at the picket-line, and his dramatic 



8 Carnpaign in the SJienandoah Valley ^ 1S64. 

ride amid a shower of bullets, closely followed by the foe to the 
creek, was not less perilous than Putnam's ride of Revolutionary 
fame. And now under his leadership, deliberately and firmly, in 
the following order, the Eighth Vermont, Twelfth Connecticut, One 
Hundred and Sixtieth New York, marched over across the pike, past 
the flying fragments of Crook's corps, and out toward the awful roar 
of Gordon's musketry and the piercing yell of his and Kershaw's 
victorious veterans as they advanced in column of brigades ; and 
the regiment was soon caught in the vortex of four rebel divisions 
as they closed around us. 

My comrades ! Who shall attempt to describe that wild tumult 
of war, that hand-to-hand conflict in the gloom of that fateful Octo- 
ber morn, when bayonets actually dripped blood, when skulls were 
broken by clubbed muskets, and faces burned by the powder's flash? 
The hand is palsied, and the lips are dumb. It is enough for us 
to inscribe on the banners we saved, that not until the regiment was 
surrounded on three sides, not until it was literally crushed by the 
sheer weight of the enemy's fierce charge, did the regiment give up 
the ground. The black wings of death dropped over the whirlpool ; 
and from the regiment one hundred and ten men, with thirteen out 
of sixteen commissioned officers, were killed or wounded, and three 
color-bearers shot dead, out of a total of one hundred and sixty-four 
engaged. Our two companion regiments were also crushed. A 
monument now marks this historic spot. 

My comrades, this heroic struggle and costly sacrifice of the Eighth 
Vermont proved an event of mighty shaping power in this battle : for 
the Confederate centre was worried and delayed more than a half- 
hour across the pike ; and as the smaller mastiff" clings to the throat 
of the larger in conflict, so the regiment and brigade clung to the 
throat of the foe as he forced us back toward Meadow Run, to the 
westward, and away from the pike, the key to the battle-field for 
the enemy. 

A full hour was thereby gained, during which many regiments ot 
the Nineteenth Corps extricated and distinguished themselves. A 



Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. g 

golden hour was gained, in which the Sixth Corps had time to form, 
cut loose, and swing entirely clear from the rest of the army on to 
high ground to the north, fitted by nature for strategy in war, thereby 
dodging the direct and powerful blow shot out by the right arm 
of Early's concentrated army ; and by this time the fierceness of 
the first morning charge had died out ; the cyclone of the battle had 
spent itself. It was no longer the magnificent sweep of divisions, with 
banners high, and wild yells that rent the very air. No : the enemy 
was moving more cautiously and slowly ; and Early now found that 
the Sixth Corps had had time to take position to arrest his progress, 
and a cavalry corps hovered on his right flank. 

Briefly, some of the important points secured were, — 

I St, The golden hour gained to the Sixth Corps, lengthened by the 
assistance of the Nineteenth Corps regiments as we neared Sheridan's 
headquarters and Meadow Run, enabled the Sixth Corps to dodge 
the first blow, and move to high ground. 

2d, The long bulldog fight of our brigade and others, from point 
of attack to Meadow Run, drew the bulk of the enemy from their 
base and the key of the battle, — the pike. 

3d, This long charge and fight of the enemy disjointed his lines, 
and exhausted his men, compelling a partial change of front, with 
fagged men, to meet the two comparatively fresh corps now threaten- 
ing their right flank, — the Sixth Corps and Torbert's cavalry. 

Finally, The Sixth Corps, always splendid fighters, now on high 
vantage-ground, the golden hour granted, had something of an equal 
show where they could form a regular line of battle, backed by the 
cavalry corps, — something the Eighth Vermont had not been per- 
mitted to enjoy. 

Still, notwithstanding all this, two divisions of the Sixth Corps were 
flanked and roughly handled, and only one division, Getty's, under 
Gen. L. A. Grant, barely had time to reach a coveted ridge near 
Middletown in season to prevent the enemy from flanking the entire 
Sixth Corps ; and the student of war may well exclaim, " If the hour 
of grace granted was scarce sufficient, what would, have been the 



10 Campaign in the Shenaitdoah Valley, 1864. 

result but for Thomas's heroic fight at early dawn, and the golden 
hour thus gained to the army ! " 

Ours was a solitary, isolated combat. And to preserve in perma- 
nent, condensed form, references thereto, it is proper to record the 
fact that seven different historians make special mention of its im- 
portance and savage nature ; that Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan stated over 
his own signature that " The Eighth Vermont fought with conspicuous 
gallantry at the battle of Cedar Creek." Col. Newhall, of Sheridan's 
staff, wrote : " The Eighth Vermont did all its work well; but I think 
most highly of its services in the morning of the battle of Cedar 
Creek, when, in the confusion and din, one firm regiment was worth 
its weight in gold. Your men, standing by the colors, and making 
that desperate fight with the battle clashing around them, showed as 
much morale as Sheridan did when he came up later, and in the 
same spirit led on to victory." 

Of eminent Southern men, Major-Gen. Gordon, of Confederate 
fame, in a recent communication substantiates in the main the state- 
ments made herein so far as they relate to the regiment's conflict 
with his corps, and the results arising therefrom. 

Col. Hotchkiss, who served on the staff of Gens. Stonewall Jack- 
son, Early, and Lee, now at Kershaw's side in the assault, gallandy 
salutes the regiment as follows : " The losses in killed and wounded 
that were sustained in this brief shock of battle by your own gallant 
regiment, and by those associated with it, are the best proof of the 
fierceness of our attack and the courage and obstinacy of your de- 
fence. Such a display of heroic fortitude by the men and by the 
leader of your command is worthy of the highest praise and admira- 
tion. The soldierly honors of the day on your side, the honors that 
always have been and that always will be awarded to the men that 
unflinchingly take any odds when duty calls to action, appear beyond 
question to belong to the brave men of your command. In recogni- 
tion of their display of such courage, it gives me pleasure to salute 
them, whether living honored among their comrades, or dead on the 
field of honorable contest." 



Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. ^i 

Far distant, however, be the day when the Eighth Vermont fails to 
accord equal or higher honors to other regiments in this battle. 
Among those proper to mention here, most cordially do we greet the 
gallant One Hundred and Fourteenth New York, once of our brigade, 
which flung itself in front of the foe, and left nearly half its members 
prostrate and bleeding. Or, again, our brave sister regiment, the 
Tenth Vermont ; for among the deeds of valor none were brighter 
than when that regiment charged back in the face of the enemy, and 
rescued an abandoned battery ; and the gallant old Vermont brigade 
did here just what its reputation always guaranteed, —to wit, superb 
service, — later in a critical hour. 

But the scenes in the drama shift. Sheridan suddenly appeared in 
the midst of his broken regiments. He found his army in weakness : 
he restored it to power. He found his army disjointed, and present- 
ing simply a division or corps front at a time to the combined 
assault of the enemy. He quickly changed this unequal mode of 
warfare, and advanced all the troops to a continuous line, thus' 
uniting the corps. In fact, Sheridan showed consummate general- 
ship here, for he plucked glory from calamity : his crown was Cedar 
Creek. 

And now what shall I say of the colors and the flag of the Eighth 
Vermont in the afternoon fight and glorious victory? Ah, me ! I 
can see Thomas now as he gathered up his thinned and bleeding 
ranks, and spurred his horse forward. There was no halting, no 
wavering. The flag was there; and where Thomas and the flag 
went, the men would go, even into the gates of death. Will men 
of the Eighth Vermont ever forget the voice and form of Thomas, 
and his battle-flag, as the regiment, accompanied by Sheridan, in its 
wild delirium broke through the battle-scarred veteran brigade of 
Evans on the enemy's left? 

Can any one ever forget the battle shout that rolled along the 
line as the regiment and brigade, like a wild wave, then swept 
the enemy's left flank in terrible confusion back upon the centre, 
amid the incessant crash and roar of artillery and musketry, at 



12 Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. 

which moment another — and our fourth — color-bearer was shot 
down? 

The enemy's left shivered to fragments, Sheridan's fondest hope to 
this moment realized, and the battle saved, — was it not Thomas's 
battle-flag that the affrighted Confederates caught sight of, as he ap- 
peared with it like a thunderbolt of war on that high bluff over- 
looking Middletown, standing between them and the red sinking 
sun? 

Who but Thomas, a mighty avenger of his morning's losses, so 
suddenly emerged from the woods, and waved high his battle-flag, 
and in advance of any other banner of the Union army in that battle, 
— so far, indeed, as to be mistaken at first for the enemy, and fired 
on by the cannon of our own troops of the Sixth Corps in the rear. 
I speak the truth : I saw it with my own eyes. It was none other 
than Thomas's flag, now floating proudly from that naked eminence, 
which overlooked one of the grandest spectacles it was ever man's 
lot to look upon ; for before our eyes that mighty Confederate host 
of the mortiing crumbled, and vanished, as an army, forever from 
the Shenandoah Valley. 

From this point the regiment charged across the meadow, dis- 
abled and put to flight two pieces of artillery that had been shelling 
us with fatal accuracy, and followed the enemy without a moment's 
rest to Cedar Creek, where here again Sheridan introduced us to one 
of Custer's finest regiments, the First Vermont Cavalry ; and in the 
marvellous night pursuit that followed, the First and Eighth were the 
only Vermont regiments that went beyond the creek to Strasburg ; 
and side by side in the darkness and confusion they vied with each 
other in shouting over captured cannon and the great victory, until 
midnight found our own regiment well up on the sides of Fisher's 
Hill, holding the most advanced position of the Union army, directly 
under the works of the enemy, — so close, indeed, that the men 
were not allowed to speak above a whisper ; while the First Cavalry 
returned to Cedar Creek with many trophies, and holding as prisoner 
the brave and wounded Gen. Ramseur. 



Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864. 13 

Comrades of the old First Cavalry, the Eighth Vermont salute you ; 
and it is more than appropriate that the two Vermont regiments, 
which fought side by side in the final charge at the great battles of 
Winchester and Cedar Creek, should unite in banquet and re-union 
to-night at the capital of our State, and rejoice together, — not that 
we conquered our brothers, but that we held them with us in the 
family circle of States. 



NOTE. 

This monument, a massive block of marble, was dedicated Sept. 21st, 
1885, with impressive ceremonies, in the presence of a large delegation 
of New-England veterans, prominent Confederates, and many ladies, 
including Mrs. Governor Ormsbee, Mrs. Newcomb (daughter of General 
Thomas), Mrs. Colonel Fred E. Smith, and others. 

An oration was delivered by General Grout, member of Congress 
from Vermont; also addresses by Governor Ormsbee, General Thomas, 
Colonel Meade, Captains Howard and McFarland. 




THE 
EIGHTH VERMONT VOLUNTEERS, 

GENERAL STEPHEN THOMAS 
Commanding the Brigade, 
Advanced across the pike on the morning 
of October 19, 1864. Engaged the enemy 
near and beyond this point, and, before 
sunrise, lost in killed and wounded 110 
men. Three color- bearers were shot 
down, and thirteen out of sixteen com- 
missioned officers. Whole number en- 
gaged, 164. Dedicated September, 1885. 
Gift of Herbert E. Hill, Boston. 



CEDAR CREEK MONUMENT. 



JOINT RESOLUTIONS 

Unanimously adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of Vermont, Nov. 2, 1886. 



Whereas, Substantial monuments of Vermont marble have been erected, one 
upon the battle-field of the Opequan at Winchester, Va., to mark the ground, 
and as a memorial of those who fell in the bayonet charge of the Eighth Regi- 
ment Vermont Volunteers, Sept. 19, 1864; and one at Cedar Creek, in memory 
of the desperate struggle of Oct. 19, 1S64, in which three color-bearers were 
shot down and a hundred and ten men and thirteen officers, out of a hundred 
and sixty-four engaged, were killed or wounded ; and. 

Whereas, This noble and generous act was done at the personal expense of 
Herbert E. Hill, a veteran soldier of the Eighth Vermont Regiment : therefore. 

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the patriotic act of 
Col. Herbert E. Hill( now of Boston), in placing enduring monuments to mark 
these sacred spots, merits the gratitude of the people of this State, and we here- 
by tender him the thanks of the General Assembly. 

Resolved, That the kindly spirit in which the inhabitants of the Shenandoah 
Valley received the citizens of this State, Sept. 19, 1885, and aided them in dedi- 
cating monuments to their fallen sons, merits our warmest thanks; and the 
noble response of the Mayor of Winchester, when requested by the Governor 
of Vermont to protect the monument, saying, " We will guard it sacredly, and 
rather than allow a single letter to be effaced on its pure white surface, we would 
wish that it might be extended to the clouds, and that angels of peace might 
hover around its summit, symbolical of the union of friends now so firmly estab- 
lished between all sections in our land," is received as the fraternal sentiment 
which binds Vermonters with Virginians. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of State furnish copies of the foregoing to 
Col. Herbert E. Hill and to the Mayor of Winchester, Va. 



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